NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Wells Fargo (WFC) announced a quarterly dividend of 30 cents a share on Tuesday.

Shares of Wells Fargo rose 1.1% to $46.02.

The bank's quarterly dividend is payable on March 1 to all shareholders of record as the close of business on Feb. 7. The dividend is in line with the previous quarter. The ex-dividend date is set for Feb. 5.

TheStreet Ratings team rates WELLS FARGO & CO as a "buy" with a ratings score of A. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate WELLS FARGO & CO (WFC) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, expanding profit margins, notable return on equity and increase in net income. Although the company may harbor some minor weaknesses, we feel they are unlikely to have a significant impact on results."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

Investors have apparently begun to recognize positive factors similar to those we have mentioned in this report, including earnings growth. This has helped drive up the company's shares by a sharp 32.61% over the past year, a rise that has exceeded that of the S&P 500 Index. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, WFC should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.

WELLS FARGO & CO has improved earnings per share by 9.9% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, WELLS FARGO & CO increased its bottom line by earning $3.89 versus $3.36 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($4.03 versus $3.89).

The gross profit margin for WELLS FARGO & CO is currently very high, coming in at 93.57%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 25.85% trails the industry average.

The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Commercial Banks industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, WELLS FARGO & CO has outperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500.

WFC, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 0.8%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 6.3%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.

The new credit rating at Wells Fargo is still in the upper tier on S&P's scale of investment-grade bond issuers, so the cut may have little immediate impact. But it's a sign that the scandal is taking an incremental toll on the bank's creditworthiness and could push up its borrowing costs slightly.

Wells Fargo, the embattled U.S. bank, plans to "refresh" its board to improve oversight of management. But corporate-governance experts say the term has become a euphemism for the delicate art of shaking up a failed board without blaming individual directors.